A communication system determines whether to establish a point-to-point or point-to-multipoint communication for conveyance of Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Services (MBMS) data based on a number of user equipments being serviced by the communication system for MBMS service. The system broadcasts an access probability factor in a control message to the user equipments. For a large number of MBMS users being counted, the method will select a point-to-multipoint broadcast. If the number of user equipments being counted is relatively small, the access probability factor is modified by a ratio of the number of point-to-point connections over the point-to-multipoint connections over the number of users being counted. The UE may need to join multiple base stations' in the counting procedure to obtain the system diversity gain.